CHAPTER XL
CAPTAIN ICHABOD PUTS THE CASE
In the river at Bridgetown lay the good brig King and Queen, justarrived from Jamaica. On her deck was an impatient young gentleman,leaning over the rail and watching the approach of a boat, with two menrowing and a passenger in the stern.
This impatient young man was Dickory Charter, that morning arrived atBridgetown and not yet having been on shore. He came for the purpose ofsettling some business affairs, partly on account of Miss Kate Bonnetand partly for his mother.
As the boat came nearer, Dickory recognised one of the men who wererowing and hailed him.
"Heigho! Tom Hilyer," he cried, "I am right glad to see you on thisriver again. I want a boat to go to my mother's house; know you of oneat liberty?"
The man ceased rowing for a moment and then addressed the passenger inthe stern, who, having heard what he had to say, nodded briefly.
"Well, well, Dick Charter!" cried out the man, "and have you come backas governor of the colony? You look fine enough, anyway. But if you wanta boat to go to your mother's old home, you can have a seat in this one;we're going there, and our passenger does not object."
"Pull up here," cried Dickory, and in a moment he had dropped into thebow of the boat, which then proceeded on its way.
The man in the stern was fairly young, handsome, sunburned, and welldressed in a suit of black. When Dickory thanked him for allowing him toshare his boat the passenger in the stern nodded his head with a jerkand an air which indicated that he took the incident as a matter ofcourse, not to be further mentioned or considered.
The men who rowed the boat were good oarsmen, but they were notthoroughly acquainted with the cove, especially at low tide, andpresently they ran upon a sand-bar. Then uprose the passenger in thestern and began to swear with an ease and facility which betokened longpractice. Dickory did not swear, but he knit his brows and beratedhimself for not having taken the direction of the course into his ownhands, he who knew the river and the cove so well. The tide was risingbut Dickory was too impatient to sit still and wait until it should behigh enough to float the boat. That was his old home, that little houseat the head of the cove, and he wanted to get there, he wanted to seeit. Part of the business which brought him to Barbadoes concerned thatlittle house. With a sudden movement he made a dive at his shoes andstockings and speedily had them lying at the bottom of the boat. Then hestepped overboard and waded towards the shore. In some of the deeperplaces he wetted the bottom of his breeches, but he did not mind that.The passenger in the stern sat down, but he continued to swear.
Presently Dickory was on the dry sand, and running up to that cottagedoor. A little back from the front of the house and in the shade therewas a bench, and on this bench there sat a girl, reading. She lifted herhead in surprise as Dickory approached, for his bare feet had made nonoise, then she stood up quickly, blushing.
"You!" she exclaimed.
"Yes," cried Dickory; "and you look just the same as when you first putyour head above the bushes and talked to me."
"Except that I am more suitably clothed," she said.
And she was entirely right, for her present dress was feminine, andextremely becoming.
Dickory did not wish to say anything more on this subject, and so heremarked: "I have just arrived at the town, and I came directly here."
Lucilla blushed again.
"This is my old home," added Dickory.
"But you knew we were here?" she asked, with a hesitating look ofinquiry.
"Oh, yes," said he, "I knew that the house had been let to your father."
Now she changed colour twice--first red, then white. "Are you," shesaid, "I mean ... the other, is she--"
"I left her in Jamaica," said Dickory, "but I am going to marry her."
For a moment the rim of her hat got between the sun and her face, andone could not decide very well whether her countenance was red or white.
"I am very glad to find you here," said Dickory, "and may I see yourfather and mother?"
"Yes," said she, "but they are both in the field with my young sister.But who is this man walking up the shore? And is that the boat you camein?"
"It is," said Dickory. "We stuck fast, but I was in such a hurry that Iwaded ashore. I don't know the man; he had hired the boat, and kindlytook me in, I was in such haste to get here."
For a moment Lucilla bent her eyes on the ground. "In such haste to gethere!" she said to herself; then she raised her head and exclaimed: "Oh,I know that man; he is the pirate captain who captured the Belinda,which afterward brought us here." And with both hands outstretched, sheran to meet him.
The face of Captain Ichabod glowed with irrepressible delight; one mighthave thought he was about to embrace the young woman, notwithstandingthe presence of Dickory and the two boatmen, but he did everything hecould do before witnesses to express his joy.
Dickory now stepped up to Captain Ichabod. "Oh, now I know you," criedhe, and he held out his hand. "You were very kind indeed to my friends,and they have spoken much about you. This is my old home; this is thehouse where I was born."
"Yes, yes, indeed," said Captain Ichabod, "a very good house, bedad, avery good house." But hesitating a little and addressing Lucilla: "Youdon't live here alone, do you?"
The girl laughed.
"Oh, no," she cried. "My father and mother will be here presently; infact, I see them coming."
"That's very well," said Ichabod, "very well indeed. It's quite rightthat they should live with you. I remember them now; they were on theship with you."
"Oh, yes," said Lucilla, still laughing.
"Quite right, quite right," said Ichabod; "that was very right."
"I will go meet your father and mother and the dear little Lena; Iremember them so well," said Dickory. He started to run off in spite ofhis bare feet, but he had gone but a little way when Lucilla stoppedhim. She looked up at him, and this time her face was white.
"Are you sure," said she, "that everything is settled between you andthat other girl?"
"Very sure," said Dickory, looking kindly upon her and remembering howpretty she had looked when he first saw her face over the bushes.
She did not say anything, but turned and walked back to Captain Ichabod.She found that tall gentleman somewhat agitated; he seemed to have agreat deal on his mind which he wished to say, feeling, at the sametime, that he ought to say everything first.
"That's your father and mother," said he, "stopping to talk to the youngman who was born here?"
"Yes," she answered, "and they will be with us presently."
"Very good, very good, that's quite right," said Captain Ichabodhurriedly; "but before they come, I want to say--that is, I would likeyou to know--that I have sold my ship. I am not a pirate any longer, Iam a sugar-planter, bedad. Beg your pardon! That is, I intend to beone. You remember that you once talked to me about sugar-planting inBarbadoes, and so I am here. I want to find a good sugar plantation, tobuy it, and live on it; I heard that you were stopping on this side ofthe river, and so I came here."
"But there is no sugar plantation here," said Lucilla, very demurely.
"Oh, no," said Ichabod, "oh, no, of course not; but you are here, and Iwanted to find you; a sugar plantation would be of no use without you."
She looked at him, still very demurely. "I don't quite understand you,"she said. She turned her head a little and saw that her family andDickory were slowly moving towards the house. She knew that withdiffident persons no time should be lost, for, if interrupted, it oftenhappened that they did not begin again.
"Then I suppose," she said, her face turned up towards him, but her eyescast down, "that you are going to say that you would like to marry me?"
"Of course, of course," exclaimed Ichabod; "I thought you knew that thatis what I came here for, bedad."
"Very well, then," said Lucilla, turning her eyes to the face of the manshe had dreamed of in many happy nights. "No, no," she added quickly,"you must not kiss me;
they are all coming, and there are the twoboatmen."
He did not kiss her, but later he made up for the omission.
The moment Mrs. Mander saw Captain Ichabod and her daughter standingtogether she knew exactly what had happened; she had noticed things onboard the Belinda. She hurried up to Lucilla and drew her aside.
"My dear," she whispered, with a frightened face, "you cannot marry apirate; you never, never can!"
"Dear mother," said Lucilla, "he is not a pirate; he has sold his shipand is going to be a sugar-planter."
Now they all came up and heard these words of Lucilla.
"Yes, indeed," said Captain Ichabod, "you may not suppose it, but yourdaughter and I are about to marry, and will plant sugar together. Now, Iwant to buy a plantation. Where is that young man who was born here,bedad?"
Dickory advanced, laughing. Here was a fine opportunity, a miraculousopportunity, of disposing of the Bonnet estate, which was part of thebusiness which had brought him here. So he told the beaming captain thathe knew of a fine plantation up the river, which he thought would suithim.
"Very good," said Captain Ichabod. "I have a boat here; let us go andlook at the place, and if it suits us I will buy it, bedad."
So with Mrs. Mander and her husband beside her, and with Lucilla andthe captain by her, the boat was rowed up the river, with Dickory andyoung Lena in the bow.
When the boat reached the Bonnet estate it was run up on the shore nearthe shady spot where Kate Bonnet had once caught a fish. Then they allstepped out upon the little beach, even the oarsmen made the boat fastand joined the party, who started to walk up to the house. SuddenlyCaptain Ichabod stopped and said to Mr. Mander: "I don't think I care towalk up that hill, you know; and if you and your good wife will lookover that house and cast your eyes about the place, I will buy it, ifyou say so: you know a good deal more about such things than I do,bedad. I suppose, of course, that will suit you?" he said to Lucilla.
It suited Lucilla exactly. They sat in the shade in the very place whereKate had sat when she saw Master Newcombe crossing the bridge.
A small boat came down the river, rowed by a young man. As he passed theold Bonnet property he carelessly cast his eyes shoreward, but his hearttook no interest in what he saw there. What did it matter to him if twolovers sat there in the shade, close to the river's brink? His sad soulnow took no interest in lovers. He had just been up the river to arrangefor the sale of his plantation to one of his neighbours. He had decidedto leave the island of Barbadoes and to return to England.
The house suited Captain Ichabod exactly, when Mrs. Mander told himabout it, and Lucilla agreed with him because she was always accustomedto trust her mother in such things.
So they all got into the boat and rowed back to Dickory's old home, andon the way Captain Ichabod told Dickory that when they returned togetherto the town he would pay him for the plantation, having brought speciesufficient for the purpose.
It was a gay party in the boat as they rowed down the river; it was agay party at the house when they reached it, and they would have alltaken supper together had the Manders been prepared for suchhospitality; but they were poor, having taken the place upon a shortlease and having had but few returns so far. But they were all going tolive at the old Bonnet place, and happiness shone over everything. Itwas twilight, and the two young men were about to walk down to the boat,one of them promising to come again early in the morning, when Lucillaapproached Dickory.
"Where are you going to live with that girl?" she asked in a low voice.
"In Jamaica," said he.
"I am glad of it," she replied, quite frankly.
* * * * *
They were well content, those Jamaica people, when Ben Greenway came tolive with them. It had been proposed at one time that he should go tohis old Bridgetown home and take charge of the place as he used to, butthe good Scotchman demurred to this.
"I hae served ane master before he became a pirate," he said, "an' Idon't want to try anither after he has finished bein' ane. If I serveony mon, let him be one wha has been righteous, wha is righteous now,an' wha will continue in righteousness."
"Then serve Mr. Delaplaine," said Dickory.
* * * * *
The Manders soon removed to the little house where Dickory was born. Themansion of their daughter and her husband was a hospitable place and alively, but the life there was so wayward, erratic, and eccentric thatit did not suit their sober lives and the education of their youngdaughter. So they dwelt contentedly in the cottage at the head of thecove, and there was much rowing up and down the river.
* * * * *
It was upon a fine morning that the ex-pirate Ichabod thus addressed acitizen of the town:
"Yes, sir, I know well who once lived in the house I own. I knew the manmyself; I knew him at Belize. He was a dastardly knave, and would haveplayed false to the sun, the moon, and the stars had they shown him anopportunity, bedad. But I also knew his daughter; she sailed on my shipfor many days, and her presence blessed the very boards she trod on. Sheis a most noble lady; and if you will not admit, sir, that her sweetspirit and pure soul have not banished from this earth every taint ofwickedness left here by her father, then, sir, bedad, stand where youare and draw!"
THE END
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